Calm and patriotic
How Kyiv experiences the attacks
10/10/2022 1:36 p.m
In the morning rush hour traffic in Kiev, there was suddenly a missile alarm. The Ukrainian capital becomes the target of Russian attacks. Dramatic hours follow.
For several months, the Ukrainian capital was largely spared from Russian attacks. The last attack on Kyiv was in June. The town’s residents had returned to relatively normal life in a country at war. But now rockets are hitting the metropolis again.
Unlike previous attacks, which mostly hit the outskirts, Monday’s attacks targeted several locations in the city center. BBC correspondent Hugo Bachega was on the air live when rockets flew over the city. In the recording of the conversation, Bachega first reports that after the explosion on the bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, Russian retaliation was expected. Then a rocket can be heard flying by not too far away and the reporter ducks for cover. Later he reports from the underground car park of his hotel, which has been converted into a shelter. He reported that the missile hit a target very close to the hotel.
The attacks began in the morning and targeted several cities across Ukraine. The attacks were primarily aimed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message from downtown Kyiv released by Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko.
The capital Kyiv was shaken by several violent explosions in the morning rush hour. According to the authorities, among other things, a museum, a university and a park were hit. According to a reporter from the AFP news agency, a bullet fell near a playground. Short videos that appeared on Twitter show numerous people fleeing to metro stations. The subway traffic was partly stopped because stations were used as air raid shelters.
In one sequence, numerous people sit on the access stairs to a station and stand on the platforms. Many are checking their phones, murmurs can be heard, but most people are relatively quiet. From another station come pictures on which singing people are captured. The Metro later said trains were running again, but continued to ask people to be careful.
According to the Ukrainian army, Russia fired a total of 81 missiles at Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said 43 of these missiles were intercepted by Ukraine’s air defenses. Zelenskyy said Russia also used Iranian-made drones in the attacks.